Pennsylvania will lose one seat in Congress next year because of census population data, and the Washington Post on Monday analyzed how the state's congressional districts may be redrawn by the Republicans in charge.

"One is to draw Democratic Reps. Jason Altmire and Mark Critz into the same district in western Pennsylvania. The other is to try and dismantle Rep. Tim Holden's (D-Pa.) 17th district by dividing it amongst nearby Republicans."

But the WaPost sees this as the mostly outcome:

"Republicans draw together Altmire's 4th district and Critz's 12th district by combining the incumbents' homes in the northern Pittsburgh suburbs and Johnstown, respectively. Altmire's district remains largely the same except for extending an arm out east to Johnstown. The rest of Critz's district gets divided between three GOP districts -- Rep. Glenn Thompson's (R-Pa.) 5th district, Rep. Bill Shuster's 9th (R-Pa.), and Rep. Tim Murphy's (R-Pa.) 18th.

Holden, meanwhile, actually gets safer. His 17th district reaches up into Democratic-leaning Scranton in the northeast to make things a little easier for freshman Rep. Lou Barletta (R), who holds a pretty tenuous 11th district right now. (Barletta beat longtime Democratic Rep. Paul Kanjorski in 2010.)

By drawing as many Democrat-leaning voters as possible into Holden's district, other suburban Philadelphia Republicans in marginal districts nearby could benefit as well, including Reps. Jim Gerlach in the 6th, Charlie Dent in the 15th, Mike Fitzpatrick in the 8th and Pat Meehan in the 7th."